Ahram Weekly

Queuing for heat

Economy

Al-Ahram Weekly

The government says that the recent and widespread shortage of butane gas cylinders is about to end. Shortages in the supply of the cylinders are a recurrent problem, but the reasons this year have been different. In the past the shortages were blamed on a lack of planning. This year, bad weather along Egypt’s coastlines is said to have delayed the offloading of imported shipments.

Long queues in front of stores selling cylinders have become a common sight, with fights between impatient customers sometimes breaking out. The butane gas cylinders are used for cooking and heating. The shortfall in supplies has pushed the price of a cylinder to LE50 on the black market, far above its official price of LE8. Egypt produces only 45 per cent of its gas cylinder needs and imports the rest from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Libya. The country uses around 750 million cylinders a year. (photo: Khaled El-Fiqi)